Affairs can be fatal

Married couples, so surveys tell us, enjoy better health than their single friends. Men, in particular, live longer if they have tied the knot.

But only, it seems, if they remain faithful. According to research, straying spouses who seek a new romance to send the pulse racing again could get more than they bargained for as extramarital sex increases the risk of a heart attack.

Dr Graham Jackson, a heart specialist at St Thomas's Hospital in London, found couples in long-term relationships were far less likely to suffer heart attacks while having sex than those having affairs or onenight stands.

'We found that 75 per cent of the cases of sudden death during sexual
activity involved people who were taking part in extramarital sexual intercourse,' he told a health conference in Hamburg this week.

Affairs with a much younger lover were the most dangerous of all, he said.
The risk of heart failure during extramarital sex increased further when there was a significant difference in age between the partners, as the older one struggled to keep up with the sexual demands of the younger.

In the UK, someone suffers a heart attack every two minutes - more than 270,000 people each year. In around 30 per cent of heart attacks, the patient dies before reaching hospital.

Even though heart rates accelerate considerably during all sexual activity - whether with a spouse or not - Dr Jackson found that 'couples in long-term relationships in general hardly faced any risk of heart failure during sex'.

Measurements on blood pressure and heart rates found sex was generally comparable to a brisk 20-minute walk, with an orgasm putting a strain on the heart similar to an ensuing walk up a flight of stairs.

But in an affair, the guilt and excitement are significant factors in provoking heart attacks - as well as the stress of feeling the need to perform well in bed.

'It's what we would call the office party scenario, when the middleaged man takes the younger woman to a hotel room,' said Dr Jackson.

His findings are backed by research from the U.S. A study at Emory Medical School, Atlanta, found that when a man made love to his wife, his heart beats were regular and his pulse never went beyond 100 beats per minute.

But when he made love to his mistress, his heart beat irregularly more than 130 times a minute. A further study, published in the Journal of Legal Medicine in Japan, showed that more than 80 per cent of men who died during sex were not making love to their wives.

Two in five British marriages now end in divorce - the highest rate in Europe - and adultery is cited in around 30 per cent of cases.